After (in)RL, I decided to share some of my stories, so here we go . . . It’s all about how to stop nagging your husband
Steve & I both tell this story in workshops.
Family devotions can be real easy when your kids are very little & you read Bible stories. You have Bible picture books and read a Bible story before the kids go to bed. As they get older, you feel sort of dumb about that. Maybe, thinking, “Oh, they’re just too old to do that.”
Somewhere along elementary school, a lot of parents quit reading Bible stories to their kids. That was true for us, as well.
Somehow we quit reading Bible stories along the way. Maybe we get too busy or maybe we just feel like, “Oh, kids think this is silly.” That’s the time period where we often quit family discipleship.
When our kids were young, I wanted Steve to lead family devotions on a regular basis. But he had a different view.
Steve said “I’ll talk to our kids as it comes up talk about it. I don’t want family devotions to be structures.”
What did I do?
I nagged him . . . a bunch!
Ouch!!
After many months of nagging, I heard James Dobson on his radio show. I still remember where I driving – on Old College Road. The guest said,”Don’t nag your husbands; pray for him.” God used that radio show in my life.
What was my response?
I started praying for Steve…that daily family devotions would be important to him. That is my only solution on how to stop nagging my husband – PRAY!
Nothing happened in the first month.
Nothing happened in the first year.
It took several years before Steve & I were on the same page. God was teaching me patience. (not my favorite virtue to learn)
God was also saying, “You need to wait and let Steve be the leader.”
That didn’t mean I never talked to my kids about Biblical matters. When the kids were at home with me I still had morning devotions, AFTER Steve went to work. That way I wasn’t nagging him about it.
Eventually we all got on the same page & had family devotions each day. We read the Bible & prayed together. More than I could have dreamed of doing.
Sometimes we would read through a book of the Bible together and other times we used a book. One of the books that Steve loved was Training Hearts, Teaching Minds Each chapter had five days worth of Scripture for you to tread. Then there was a paragraph to discuss. By this time, Steve led our family devotions.
For our family, breakfast time was the best time for our family devotions. We started our day with the Bible.
Steve always says, “Connect family devotions with something you already do every day.” Well, we eat together every day. Even though we ate dinners together, we decided to to use breakfast time for family devotions.
We made a choice to eat breakfast together. While the kids finished eating, Steve led our family devotions. Many families thought…of course, you can have breakfast devotions because Steve has his own business. He has the freedom to start work a little later in the day.
That was until I heard another couple in our church.
In this family, the husband has a regular job and must be there at 8:00 am. His kids were in high school & had to be at school at 8 also. As a family, they decided mornings were best for family devotions.
They started reading the Bible together. They got up 30 minutes early to have devotions together. You can imagine how that went over with their two kids that were teenagers; like a lead balloon.
It took awhile for them to grow into family devotions, but they were committed to it. The parents felt like the time together reading Scripture at the beginning of the day was imperative to raising their boys.
First of all, find a time to have family devotions, preferably around a meal.
More importantly as moms, you need to learn how to stop nagging your husband – even if you’re nagging him about something in the Bible. Instead of nagging your hubby, start praying for him. Prayer, turning it over to God, is the only solution to any problems in your family.
Personally, I learned more about NOT nagging from 25 Ways to Communicate Respect to Your Husband.
Question: How do you stop nagging your husband? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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